Repeat visitors, growing kids, all attractions vs favourites only?

[HappyGrape]

My 9 year old son have big "I am too big for this list"

He doesn't want to do anything in Fantasyland apart from Seven Dwarfs for example (and I am not giving up on small world)

It's our 3rd trip. I am not sure should I do our touring plans as normal (he will get on with it) or skip the likes of peter pan, pooh, dumbo.... What do other repeat visitors with growing kids do?

Do you still try to do all, do you focus on favourites and chill out more?

 

[ConnecticutFlea]

Focus on favorites and chill out more=more enjoyable and less stress. I go on rides I like multiple times and there are rides I haven't done in many years.

 

[BadPinkTink]

if he doesnt want to do something then leave it be and do something else. So what if he doesnt want to do a ride he previously loved. Forcing him to follow the touring plan you always do will just end up with a grumpy resentful kid and stressed out parents. Just scrap the thought train of its Disney we ALWAYS go on this ride so we are still going to do it whether the kid wants to or not.

My first visit to a Disney park was when I was 16 with my family. While I realized I had found my happy place, I hated being with the family and doing things cos "oh its Disney we HAVE to do this" for example I didnt like the character meets, the staged family photo ops, and alot more. Now I am an adult, I go on my own and I dont do character meets, I dont do the photos of myself everywhere, I go on rides multiple times in a row if I want etc etc.

 

[Klayfish]

My twins turn 9 in just a few days (and my older one is 12), so I get it. I think it depends on what you want to do and how flexible your child is. Thankfully, our kids will still ride pretty much anything. At the same time, there are some rides that the kids don't necessarily want to do but my wife and I do. For those, we don't give them an option. They're going, like it or not. The Beauty and the Beast show at HS, for example. My boys don't want to do it, buy my wife and daughter do. Yes, we could split up, but I want to see it too. So we tell the boys that they're coming. We're not mean about it, but we firmly tell them it's their choice. Go and be at least cordial about it or go and be grumpy. If they're cordial about it, they'll get a small reward of some kind (maybe a Mickey ice cream bar), if they ruin the experience, they'll miss out on a ride. That's just a simple example, but the general idea is that we tell the kids that we're here for everyone and they need to be flexible. For the most part, they're so happy to be in WDW that they're much more willing to do things that may not be their favorite than they would be at home.

Don't get me wrong, that is NOT how we tour WDW. 95% of the trip is centered around the things they want to do, but at the same time we don't feel that we should sacrifice everything that my wife and I may want to do just because our kids don't want to. Getting all 3 of my kids to always agree on what they want to do can be another story itself...

 

[ejdmomma]

My kids range in ages from 5 to 14. When I'm planning any trip, I try to incorporate something each child will enjoy. Sometimes it means my older children have to do something "babyish" or it may mean the little has to sit it out. For Disney, everyone (husband included) gets to pick something they ABSOLUTELY want to do and I make sure it's in our plan. There are things that I know certain kids like and don't like. Sometimes we split up. Sometimes we all suffer through it I don't feel like we need to hit every attraction; there is so much to do and see that I can fill our day with just "favorites".

BTW my son loves the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game at MK. He could spend hours (and has) playing it! He will give up rides to play the game. This is definitely where we have to compromise and split up occasionally.

 

[Hikergirl]

We just go on what we like, and I don't force any of my kids to ride anything they don't want too. If 2 of them want to ride X and one of them doesn't, then they can just wait for everyone else to ride.
Not sure how many people you are traveling with so that may not work for you though.

I love the classics, so sometimes I "make" them ride IASW just for something to laugh about

 

[Mikie]

The adults and big kids in my group love all the classics, so kids who are "too big" still ride them. Until our next trip, I have always had someone in the preschool age range (even if it was extended family with us) so we've ridden the "Little kid" stuff and everyone still has fun even though they "had to" ride it. It will be very interesting to see what it will be like when we do a nuclear-family-only trip and my youngest will be 9-10. I'd bet if we're near Aladdin's carpets and there's practically no line, we'll still ride it. I think that will become our yardstick - likely to ride just about anything with a FP or super-short line, but if it's a choice of 35 min for Big THunder or 20 minutes for Pooh, we're probably never getting in that Pooh line! I imagine we'll do a bit like @Klayfish where we may have an attraction or two that's only on mom&dad's radar, but everyone will have to suck it up and go with us and the majority of everything else will be more dictated by the kiddos.

 

[lizabu]

We only do our favourites and we skip everything else. There's more time when you do that to experience spontaneous Disney fun like a character interactions or watch the Dapper Dans etc. Eat an ice cream and people watch or ride a Main Street vehicle.

 

[amcnj]

There are definitely attractions I don't feel the need to do every time, but only once in a while just to remember they are still there!

 

[Nancyg56]

We tend to play it by ear. I don't drag anyone on attactions they want to avoid, but I would not even think about the "Don't Do' list of a 9 Yo other than to tell him we will keep that in mind. I think that other than acknowledging that for now he does not want to go on something places too much emphasis on negatives.

When we tour it is generally with a diverse age group and we all have specific likes and dislikes. We book FP that we all want, and in between just go on attactions with shorter SB lines, so other than staying in a specific land we do not keep to a real touring plan, other than to stay in the general vicinity of the next FP attraction or where we want to eat.

You will be surprised how different the opinions are once you are in the park and a "don't do" attraction has a short queue. LOL! If once you arrive he sticks to his guns, unless there is a reason that he cannot sit one out, I would let him.

 

[disneymom0104]

We still do almost everything, but still have a wide range of kids, 2-14. When my oldest was about 10 she did refuse to ride Dumbo and Small World, but now at 14 she is over that and enjoys riding everything. If we didn't still have a toddler, we would likely skip some of those things.

 

[geenerbell]

We've been many times. Each trip is different. I would love to recreate our first trip but that's impossible. I would do a mix of favorites and classics.

 

[Nancyg56]

We've been many times. Each trip is different. I would love to recreate our first trip but that's impossible. I would do a mix of favorites and classics.

Wouldn't that be nice! Our first trip back after our kids grew up and we had our precious DGD was one that was close to perfect. I am not sure how much of that was because we were entirely encapsulated in that first trip wonder, but it matters not. It was lovely.

Since then we have taken many trips back, and some are better than others, but they all are different and all nice.

 

[kaybird]

We have always done everything, every trip. While the boys were younger and we had a wide variety of ages, it was understood that it was a trip for all of us, and we would enjoy everything, regardless if it was our favorite or not, because likely someone would love it. Now the boys are all grown, with families of their own, and this is still what we do! I go back to Walt's original idea of something for everyone and every ride or attraction for someone!

 

[aretha30]

We go every year and each trip is different. This year our boys are 13 and 8 our 13 yr old loves the coaster type rides, our 8 yr old hates them. We either split up, DH takes our 13 yr old and I take our 8 yr old and we meet back up or we wait until my mom joins us and she and the 8 yr old go off and do the rides they like together. This year we also added the water parks because last year our boys wanted to spend more time at the pool and less time in the parks. We let them set the tone as to what they want to see and do, otherwise they'd be pretty miserable and so would we! Who wants to be dragged around doing things they don't like, especially in the heat?

 

[clm10308]

I think it is perfectly fine ride something because you want to even if the kids would be happy to skip it.

 

[lovethattink]

My oldest son went through a phase where he only liked thrill rides. Busch Gardens, Universal, and IOA were his favorite parks. But he was in high school when this phase started. Now he's in his 20's and enjoys all the attractions and all the parks.

I guess with a 9 year old not wanting to ride certain attractions, it would be easiest to skip them. There's so much to do at WDW that not everything can be done in one trip.

Compromise might be another option. Both parties usually lose something in the compromise. Unless you plan together and list your top 10 and his top 10 and make every effort to make it to each top 10 attraction.

There's always bribery, but again you lose.

My youngest is 11. We usually use the yo-yo method. He picks an attraction, then I do and so on. If dh is with us he gets added to the mix too. We pick FP+ together. We also split up. There are some attractions I just can't ride, so dh and ds ride them while I sit somewhere or look in shops.

 

[Eandbmom]

Everyone gets to pick one must ride in each park and one would really like to ride. A lot of the times they overlap. After that we go where there are shorter lines. We have hoppers so are typically in two parks a day so everyone gets to do favorites and time to get the classics in too.

 

[RLGNC]

Getting all 3 of my kids to always agree on what they want to do can be another story itself...

I hear ya'...and I only have 2 kids!

BTW my son loves the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game at MK. He could spend hours (and has) playing it!

I can't wait to try this when we go. My DS is not crazy about the "thrill" rides, so I'm hoping this is something he can enjoy.

 

[ejdmomma]

I can't wait to try this when we go. My DS is not crazy about the "thrill" rides, so I'm hoping this is something he can enjoy. [/QUOTE]

Mine isn't crazy about thrill rides either! On the flip side, my DD loves rides but hates the game. So we typically split up for a bit.